1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of evaluating sire (stallion) in a computer game in which a user breeds race horses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is known a simulation game in which a user hypothetically experiences a horse owner and breeds racehorses. In such a game, a user selects his or her favorite horses (especially sire), breeds race horses, and make the horses run races. Since basic ability of a newborn horse depends on how to select the sire and the breeding mare, the user considers various matters to determine the sire and the breeding mare so that a strong race horse is born. Thus, the user can hypothetically experience the pleasure of the horse owner in producing strong horses from the sires and the breeding mares of his or her choice.
In such a race-horse breeding game, plural sires are prepared, in advance, at the beginning of the game. Normally, the mating fee required to mate a sire with a breeding mare is set more expensive as the ability of the sire is high.
However, in the conventional game, the mating fees for the sires were fixed, and therefore the user is inclined to frequently select only several high-ability sires for which the mating fee is high. Thus, breeding the race-horses in the game becomes unthinking and monotonous.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a game system capable of enhancing the user""s enjoyment in a race-horse breeding game by introducing more actual evaluation method for varying the evaluation of sires.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a computer-readable storage medium carrying program therefor.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a game system including: a display device for displaying images; an input device for receiving manipulation by a user and for outputting a signal corresponding to the manipulation; and a control device for controlling progress of a horse breeding game with monitoring the signal outputted from the input device and displaying images corresponding to the progress of the game on a screen of the display device, the control device including: an evaluation value storage unit for storing evaluation values for a plurality of sires; a control unit for controlling the progress of the game based on the evaluation values; and an evaluation value updating unit for updating the evaluation values for the sires in every predetermined period during the progress of the game.
In accordance with the game system thus configured, the evaluation values stored for plural sires are updated in a predetermined period during the progress of the game. Therefore, the progress of the game is not monotonous, and the variation of the game play may be broadened.
The control device may further include a mating fee determining unit for determining a mating fee for each sire based on the updated evaluation value; and a sire list producing unit for producing a sire list including indication of the mating fees for all sires determined by the mating fee determining unit and for displaying the sire list on the display device. By this, the mating fee is determined based on the updated evaluation values, and then the sire list is produced which indicates the mating fees thus determined for all sires. Since the mating fee varies in every predetermined period in the game, the user may have broad choice, thus increasing the pleasure of the user in selecting the sire.
The control device may further include a sire designating unit for receiving a designation of the sire by the user; a child horse ability determining unit for determining a basic ability value of a child horse based on pedigree data of the sire designated by the sire designating unit; and a child horse ability correcting unit for correcting the basic ability value of the child horse for the designated sire based on variation amount of the updated evaluation value.
In accordance with the above configuration, first the basic ability value of the child horse is determined based on the pedigree data of the selected sire. Then, based on the variation amount of the updated evaluation value of the sire, the basic ability value of the child horse is corrected. Therefore, not only the pedigree data but also the sire""s ability at that time is reflected to the ability value of the child horse. Thus, the user can know the variation condition of the sire evaluation value to produce stronger horses.
The evaluation value updating unit may update the evaluation value by adding a predetermined reference value for the sire to a correction value generated using a random number. Thus, the evaluation values of the sires are evenly updated.
The correction value may be determined by arithmetically operating a variation range value and a variation probability value predetermined for the sire and the random number. Hence, by determining the variation range value and the variation probability value differently, the variation of the sire ability may be peculiarly characterized.
The control device may further include a race result data storage unit for storing race result data of the child horse for each sire, and the evaluation value updating unit may update the evaluation value of the sire based on the race result data of the child horse. By this, the evaluation of the sire is improved if the race result of the child horse for the sire is improved. This enables more realistic evaluation of the sires.
The control device may further include a variation tendency determining unit for determining variation tendency of the evaluation value for each sire based on the variation amount of the evaluation value caused by the updating, and the sire list producing unit may produce the sire list which represents sire names, the mating fees and the variation tendency of the evaluation value in an order sorted in terms of the mating fee. Therefore, the user can know the mating fees and the variation of the sire""s evaluation from the sire list. Namely, the user can obtain, from the sire list, useful information in selecting sire.
The child horse ability correcting unit may correct the ability by increasing the ability of the child horse if the variation amount of the evaluation value is positive and decreasing the ability of the child horse if the variation amount of the evaluation value is negative. By this, the sire in good condition produces strong child horses with high probability, and sire in bad condition produces strong child horses with low probability. Thus, the condition and/or tendency of the sire at each time may be reflected to the ability of the child horse.
The control device may further include a stability storage unit for storing a predetermined stability for each sire, and the child horse ability correcting unit may correct the ability of the child horse such that the ability of the child horse largely depends upon the variation amount of the evaluation value if the stability of the selected sire is high and the ability of the child horse less depends upon the variation amount of the evaluation value if the stability of the selected sire is low. Thus, by selecting the sire in consideration of the stability, it is possible to predict or presume the influence of the sire to its child horse, thereby increasing the pleasure of thinking in the selection of the sire.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer readable storage medium for carrying a program for controlling progress of a horse breeding game with monitoring the signal outputted from an input device of a game system and displaying images corresponding to the progress of the game on a screen of the display device, the program controls the game system to function as: an evaluation value storage unit for storing evaluation values for a plurality of sires; a control unit for controlling the progress of the game based on the evaluation values; and an evaluation value updating unit for updating the evaluation values for the sires in every predetermined period during the progress of the game.
In accordance with the storage medium, when it is read out and executed by the computer, the computer may function as a control device in the game system of the present invention. It is noted that the storage medium may include a magnetic storage medium, an optical storage medium, a magneto-optical storage medium, a semiconductor storage elements and other various storage means.
The nature, utility, and further features of this invention will be more clearly apparent from the following detailed description with respect to preferred embodiment of the invention when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings briefly described below.